Today, Rajiv Shah, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Donald Kaberuka, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB); and Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, announced the creation of the Agriculture Fast Track, a $25 million dollar first-of-its-kind fund that will spur greater private investment in agriculture infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

On May 9th, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah will join African Development Bank (AfDB) President Donald Kaberuka and Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson to launch the Agriculture Fast Track Fund in Cape Town, South Africa. This is a first-of-its-kind fund that will encourage greater private investment in agriculture infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) LAUNCH Program was chosen by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation as one of the “Top 25” programs for this year’s Innovations in American Government Award. The Innovations in American Government Awards competition is the nation's preeminent program devoted to recognizing and promoting excellence and creativity in the public sector.

Yesterday, at the G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the release of exciting new datasets and tools that increase transparency and provide the fuel for innovators and decision makers to solve problems. The conference, hosted by the United States Government, convened countries from the G-8 and New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition to discuss the potential of open data for agriculture and develop action plans to open and apply food security relevant datasets.

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ford Foundation, Show of Force, and Games for Change launched the Half the Sky Movement Media and Technology Engagement Initiative. Over the next two years, this initiative will work to create behavior change toward gender issues in India and Kenya through an integrated media campaign. It will use a combination of traditional and social media, which has been demonstrated to be a powerful approach for shifting gender-related norms and behavior.

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah will travel to Colombia with Assistant Administrator for Latin American and the Caribbean Mark Feierstein on April 29-30. Administrator Shah will meet with President Juan Manuel Santos and other senior government officials to discuss economic and social development initiatives and aspects of the ongoing peace process. This trip comes one year after President Obama’s visit to Colombia for the Sixth Summit of the Americas and highlights the important role that the country and the Americas play for the United States.

On Friday, April 19, the White House hosted a meeting with domestic and international partners to discuss the path towards achieving universal primary education, the second Millennium Development Goal (MDG) by 2015. The meeting came on the heels of the World Bank Spring Meetings and as the international community enters the final 1,000 days to achieve the MDGs. Administrator Shah said “By working together to support and strengthen the efforts of our partner governments to prioritize education, we can accelerate progress towards the goal of access to quality education for all children in crisis and conflict-affected countries”.

Several U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) officials will participate in the G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture April 29-30 in Washington, D.C. The conference will host agricultural leaders from around the world and will demonstrate the role of open data in increasing agricultural production, improving private sector growth, and ensuring global food security.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) selected Hervé Thomas and Jacob Morrin as its first Donald M. Payne International Fellows. The selection follows a rigorous competition that included a review of over 200 applicants from the United States and around the world, in addition to interviews, timed essays, and group exercises. "I am delighted to congratulate two impressive students on receiving the first USAID Payne fellowships," said Administrator Rajiv Shah. "We look forward to welcoming them to our Agency after they have completed their studies.”

The Governments of the United States and the Republic of South Sudan, in coordination with the European Union, Norway and the United Kingdom, met April 16 with more than forty other governments and international organizations at the South Sudan Economic Partners Forum in Washington, DC. The forum marked the start of an enhanced partnership to strengthen governance, political inclusiveness and sustainable development in South Sudan. Hosted by the U.S. Government, the Partners Forum reviewed South Sudan’s progress over the challenging past 18 months, welcomed the Government’s fiscal and economic strategy, and agreed on the outlines of a compact based on mutual commitments to reform and international engagement.

This week, a delegation of Yemeni coffee producers and exporters, as well as Yemeni government representatives, attended the Specialty Coffee Association of America Workshop in Boston to help introduce Yemen’s unique beans to America and other countries.

Today, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah will hold a Twitter Chat to answer questions about U.S. food assistance efforts worldwide and President Barack Obama's proposal for food aid reform in the 2014 budget request. The online event will begin at 2:30 p.m.. Twitter users will use #AskUSAID and @RajShah to submit questions.

Initiative Will Expand Successful Monitoring and Management System to Combat Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today the first breakthrough social enterprise to be supported by the Innovation Investment Alliance—a new Global Development Alliance with the Skoll Foundation.

Tomorrow, April 12th, USAID will be hosting a launch event at the National Press Club for the new integrated Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD) from UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.. This event will be in conjunction with launch events taking place in Geneva, and will also include the London release of The Lancet Series on pneumonia and diarrhea.

To increase educational and employment opportunities for at-risk youth, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will expand its “A Ganar” program in Central America. Currently, the “A Ganar” (“To Win”) program, co-funded by USAID and the Inter-American Development Bank, helps at-risk youth in 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Maura O’Neill and Mobile Solutions Director Priya Jaisinghani will address the 2013 Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England.

Janina Jaruzelski was sworn in as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Mission Director for Bolivia. Mark Feierstein, USAID’s Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, administered the oath of office.

Washington State University will lead a new effort to develop wheat varieties that are better at tolerating the high temperatures found in most of the world’s growing regions—temperatures that are likely to increase with global warming. The research will be supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), and is part of the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future.

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new LGBT Global Development Partnership, a public-private partnership between the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the Gay & Lesbian Victory Institute (GLVI), the Williams Institute, and Olivia Companies, which further promotes foreign assistance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality in emerging markets and developing countries.